They were truly horrific, but definitely on the side of the Legends. Sara and Nora had summoned them from the depths of the Underworld to come and fight for them. They were all decaying bodies with a horrible stench – bodies revealing bones here and there where the flesh had already gone. They wore armor from the times they had perished and on their way out, they seemed to have grabbed any weapon they could find and distributed them unevenly. Some walked around with a sword, some had a spear, a couple of others wielded two axes while their friends walked around with just a shield or their bare hands.
They were under the direct command of Nora and Sara. The stream of zombie warriors did not seem to end. The two ladies divided their attention and divided the army up into three parts. One third would independently help Wally distract the Giantess. The two other thirds were controlled by either Nora or Sara and were directed towards Hecate and Hypnos.
Amaya, Nate, and Constantine were struggling against Hecate. Her clay creatures were relentless and the goddess wasn't going to stop summoning them any time soon. It also did not help that John himself had to drop the portal to the Underworld in favor of defending himself; only when the steady stream of clay opponents had slowed down could he attempt to summon that portal again. Then there was the drowsiness that Hypnos emitted and that affected all Legends in the vicinity. They believed Hypnos was also targeting them, but they couldn't take him out because Hecate provided more than enough distraction as it was.
They needed to beat Hecate. Or they at least needed to make sure she wouldn't target John anymore so he could send her to Hell (and hopefully, she wouldn't appear on the shore of the Acheron for a while).
But new activity at the waterline worried Nate. As he fought, he witnessed how zombie-like warriors crawled out of the river and split up. It did not seem like they had good intentions. Nate immediately assumed Hecate called for more back-up when he, Amaya, and John weren't paying attention. As if it wasn't already difficult not to lose…
About a third of the zombies steadily walked towards them; two other groups moved to the other Legends. Nate punched a hole in one of the clay figures and found Amaya, who struck down three of them at the same time with the power of whatever animal spirit she'd recently called upon?
"It's gonna be tougher," Nate told her as he grabbed the arm of one of these creatures and threw it into one of its comrades. He nodded towards the zombies to notify Amaya, who then saw them, too. She did not like these newcomers, but she sighed and prepared for a battle that could be much tougher than before, having to face off against two enemies.
Hecate turned her head to the zombies and glared at them. All newly summoned clay creatures immediately went towards the zombie warriors. Those who Hecate had already summoned still fought Amaya, Nate, and John, but the others focused on the newcomers.
"That's weird," Nate muttered. The words had not even left his mouth when he figured out the zombie army was not here to fight for the goddess of magic, but rather against her. He had no idea what was going on to have elicited this kind of reaction, but he wouldn't question it. For all he cared, Hades himself had sent them to help. They may have a chance of taking down Hecate now her attention was divided.
Nate left Amaya's side – he was certain she wasn't going to pass away while the formless creatures attacked – and ran over to John's side, to take over. The master of the occult had been casting spells to destroy multiple clay creatures at once, but there always were new creatures waiting to have their asses kicked. That is until Nate swooped in and helped him to get rid of most of the clay creatures that swarmed around John.
"Hey," Nate said, "we're getting some help here."
"I can see that," John responded. He needed a moment to catch his breath before continuing.
"Amaya and I can take care of Hecate's monsters," Nate said. "It would give you the opportunity to—"
"Yes, I understand." Nate raised his thumb.
"Great!" Nate jogged towards the nearest monster. Behind him, John opened the portal to the Underworld again and focused it on Hecate.
The goddess of magic was not amused by this course of action, but even she found it difficult to focus on two targets at the time. After years, almost two millennia of inactivity and a good and quiet life, she had gotten used to easy fights she always won. Now a more serious threat had surfaced – now she did not know how to properly deal with it.
She didn't notice the portal until it was too late. When she did, she tried to lock herself to the ground where she stood and stop the process, but it was no use. Nate raced towards her and slammed into her, bringing her off-balance; Hecate disappeared into John's portal and was on her way back to the Underworld.
As soon as she was gone, Hecate's clay figured melted away. the portal closed and John collapsed – magic cost a lot of energy, and the spells he had fired over the past couple of minutes had taken its toll. He sat up and took regular breaths, staring at the river and the zombie army that marched towards the Giantess
"Are you okay?" Amaya asked when she approached him and Nate. John nodded.
"I need a minute." Just one minute – not more and not less. One minute before he would force himself onto his feet and into the next stage of the fight again.
#
In the meantime, Hypnos had not noticed the zombie warrior outbreak yet. He was too busy paying attention to his great work of bringing these three Legends – Mick, Zari, and Ray – to their knees. They still struggled to stay awake, as the need to sleep became greater with every passing second.
Mick especially was frustrated by this unnatural feeling. Sleep should come naturally – it shouldn't be forced on them or used as a weapon. And once they were asleep, Hypnos would not allow them to ever wake up again. Or he might do something else once they slept, the possibilities including being fed to Periboea's monster.
Mick had not been planning to go down without a fight. And while this was a struggle, it wasn't a real fight. this was just a god bullying his significantly weaker opponents into submission and Mick was not having any of that.
He lifted his head and glared at Sleep personified. He could not stand the smug grin on Hypnos' face, acting as if he'd already won, and anger flared up in the arsonist. It was such an intense fury he had never felt. His body seemed to heat up as this fury grew. Hypnos grinned even wider when he realized how angry Mick was. such a pity that these three would soon be sleeping.
But as humorous Mick's anger was, he did not believe it may defeat him. This fury made him strong enough to sit on his knees and glare the dirtiest glare he had at Hypnos, shouting all kinds of profanities.
As Mick glared at the god, it seemed his vision was blurring a little, but this usually happened when he had drunk a little more than usual. Blurry vision with a possible hint of purple around the edges. It was weird and came so suddenly, it caught Mick off guard.
Whatever was going on did not just affect Mick – it also negatively affected Hypnos. Mick could feel it; it was as if they were tied somehow. Whatever Hypnos was seeing – whatever Mick made him see – Hypnos' grin was wiped off of his face within a second and turned his attention to something that definitely was not and never had been there.
What Hypnos saw can only be speculated upon. It might be his greatest fear or a monster to the likes of what Periboea attempted to create. Whatever it was, it drew all of his attention and this stopped the waves of sleep. It did not immediately stop the Legends' drowsiness, but it did stop the pressing need to fall asleep. Ray and Zari recovered quickly and witnessed Hypnos scream and 'defend' himself from something they could not see.
"What is that?" Zari asked.
Mick shrugged. There was only one reasonable explanation. "Dianetics' powers." The god of wine had endorsed him. He had already forgotten what the god had blessed him with, but this had to be that god's work – some secret power he had planted inside the arsonist, waiting to be used at the right moment.
"Do you mean Dionysus?" Ray asked.
"Whatever," Mick said. His eyes were still on Hypnos. Mick's wave of insanity seemed to have worn off easily and though Hypnos was not too disoriented, he still seemed to be distraught by what had happened.
The zombies that had come out of the river had reached Hypnos. The three Legends braced themselves for a fight, even though the drowsiness hadn't yet disappeared. They had noticed the clay creatures Hecate had created – it was not that big of a stretch that they brought some back-up that had taken a while to show up. These zombie warriors did not go further than the personification. They threw themselves on Sleep, raising their weapons and hitting him with everything they had.
Hypnos was overwhelmed but remained strangely calm throughout the experience. He was irritated and swatted away anyone who tried to grab him with their hands. He stared at the group and remained quiet, possibly trying the same drowsy-wave attack on these warriors.
It did not work this time around. On any other living being, he would have brought them to their knees and made them sleep. But these warriors had crawled out of hell – they were dead, and the dead did not need to sleep nor can they be persuaded to go to sleep, either. The warriors were unaffected by Hypnos' powers. Once again, his twin brother had beaten him, this time without even being directly involved.
Now Hypnos panicked. He moved his arms and legs as much as he could, to shake off any hands that had grabbed him and to possibly hit someone in the progress. But the zombies were relentless and quickly grabbed a hold of him.
While the majority of zombies still piling up on Hypnos and the personification was barely visible, they still did not do substantial damage to the god. He fought hard to free himself from the claws, but they firmly held him. The small group that kept Hypnos in place carried him back to the river to take him home. Hypnos shouted and tried to command them to do as he said while also cursing his brother Death for being more powerful than him.
Eventually, the zombies disappeared under the water with Hypnos and the shouting subsided. Sleep had been beaten. Maybe that was what had needed to happen: the zombies turned to dust and fell apart.
#
In the meantime, Sara and Nora were enjoying their powers, though holding hands was a bit awkward. Sara controlled the group that fought Hecate while Nora took care of the personification of Sleep and the Giantess' cauldron. Nora directed the last group straight to the brew Periboea was trying to make. At the same time, Wally was still distracting the Giantess like how a fly would annoy any person. Except Wally was six times smaller than the Giantess, who did not seem too worried in the first place.
The zombie warriors reached the cauldron and the Giantess. There were not going to take over Wally's job; instead, they decided to focus their efforts on toppling the cauldron or destroying the brew the Giantess tried to brew. If that was destroyed, her plan would be thwarted and only the Giantess herself would have to be taken care of.
The zombie warriors pushed and pulled to the best of their abilities, but the cauldron would not budge. When Nora had some of them climb into the cauldron, this did not work – the cauldron was too steep and slippery and the warriors just tumbled back into the crowds, to try again later.
Periboea noticed the undead warriors that Sara and Nora had called upon. Again, she looked at them as a nuisance rather than a serious threat.
Wally had tried to attack randomly, but after a while, the Giantess noticed a pattern. When he would pass in front of her feet, she only needed to lift her foot. Wally had no time to react and ran into it with so much force, he nearly knocked himself out and needed some time off. Periboea kicked Wally away from her and focused her attention on the cauldron again.
"Can we do any more things?" Sara wondered out loud.
"I don't know," Nora responded and she shrugged.
Nevertheless, Sara tried. But whatever force kept them in control of their zombie-army, it did not help them strike down the Giantess who stared suspiciously at the army.
Periboea only needed a couple of steps to return to her cauldron. With her gloved hands and feet, she easily pushed and shoved the hordes of warriors and kicked them away, towards the river and towards Nora and Sara.
The bubble around them was not a force field. Anything could fall through the thin barrio, even a zombie warrior kicked their way to throw the ladies off-balance. The warrior made them fall over and let go of one another. The power surging through them disappeared and consequently, they lost control of the undead army. The corpses turned to dust and the beach seemed bigger and less crowded again.
Hecate was banished to the Underground by John. Hypnos was dragged to the same location through the Acheron. But the cauldron still stood and so did the Giantess.
While Nora and Sara stood up again, the other Legends made their way back to their captain. They had done their job, now they stood and watched the Giantess grin like a madwoman.
Sara and the others got an uneasy feeling from that grin – as if the Giantess was celebrating a victory. Only Periboea knew the exact recipe and the cooking time of whatever she brewed in the cauldron. Her monster could be ready.
Sara was not the only one who believed something big was going to happen. When she turned her head, the other Legends had desperate looks on their faces. Wally joined them again and he, too, could feel the tension in the air.
"Come out, Ólethros," the Giantess said. Its name was in the same style as the personifications. Just as Hypnos is sleep, Ólethros is destruction.
The monster jumped out of the cauldron.